In baking, all you knead is love and a little butter.
Doubtless, Ana Lorenzana de Ocampo knows about this cute quote.
She comes from a family who made its fame and fortune out of making fish sauce or ‘patis” which we put into practically every food except, sweet stuffs like ice cream and leche flan.
Ana traces her roots to the makers of the famous Lorins Patis brand, but she blossomed into a creator of fine dining concepts now being offered by Wildflour restaurants.
She earned a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Administration from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, then pursued her studies in pastry and culinary arts at the Le Cordon Bleu in London.
In collaboration with her sister, Margarita Lorenzana-Manzke who is also in the pastry business, Ana set off her owned entrepreneurial journey with the launch of the first Wildflour at Bonifacio Global City in 2012.
Margarita herself is quite a story. She is a multi-awarded pastry chef and entrepreneur. She studied at the Culinary Institute of America in New York where she graduated in 1998. She moved to Los Angeles, California and worked in the city’s prominent restaurants, including Spago and Patina, where she met her future husband and business partner, Walter.
Margarita was named by LA Weekly as “Best Pastry Chef” in 2014 for her work at her own restaurant République, and was a finalist in the James Beard Awards, referred to as the “Oscars of the food industry” for four consecutive years from 2017-2020 in the Outstanding Pastry Chef category.
Margarita’s one-of-a-kind recipes are further immortalized in her very own cookbook, Baking at Republique launched in 2020.
With Ana as chief executive, the Wildflour evolved into a conglomerate of multiple hospitality shops including Wildflour Italian, George and Onnie’s, Pink’s, Pizza Sisters, Hotel Bar, Village Bar, Farmacy Ice Cream, and Wildflour To-Go and Osteria which deliver fine foods to the doorsteps of customers. Wildflour Café + Bakery though has remained the flagship brand ever since.
Ana relishes the sight of satisfied customers. “The idea of seeing people enjoy your food should not be your primary motivation; that is simply the cherry on top. When work becomes personal to you, that daily smell of bread baked properly or the trials of testing a new pastry still elicit a thrill. Then it won’t simply be a job you have, but a lifelong, fruitful journey.”
She looks back to 2024 as another banner year for Wildflour, having broadened its market to cover more areas outside Metro Manila.
This year, Ana already has a blueprint for more branches across major cities in Luzon. And by 2026, she looks forward to doing business overseas.
Before going into the hospitality sector, Ana was purchasing director of Office Warehouse, another family-owned chain of retail outlets.
Her business acumen has been making waves in the corporate world. As Wildflour’s reaped commendations one after another, Ana herself mustered citations as an intrepid and pioneering executive, among them the Go Negosyo Inspiring Filipina Entrepreneur Award in 2018, Tatler’s Restaurateur of the Year 2021, an ASEAN Women Entrepreneur Awardee for 2022, and a finalist for Ernst & Young/SGV’s Entrepreneur of the Year Philippines 2022.
There’s no secret to Ana’s success; steadfast and hands-on leadership, acute business intuition, uncompromising vision and drive for excellence.